A research team, studying the effects of an inpatient physical rehabilitation program on people with unilateral lower-limb amputations, concluded that being admitted to an intensive hospitalized physical rehabilitation program yielded benefits in mobility, balance, functionality, and gait capacity irrespective of amputation causality or if a prosthesis was provided.
The retrospective before-after study extracted data from medical records of individuals with lower-limb amputations who were admitted for inpatient intensive rehabilitation programs. Data on etiology, functional mobility, balance and functionality, and gait was collected before and after the prosthetic fitting. Patient information was stratified as traumatic and vascular etiologies, and general outcomes and intragroup results were compared with a t-test and followed by linear regressions analysis for a better understanding of the demographic and clinical roles on treatment evolution.
The group with traumatic amputations skewed younger than the vascular amputation group. Before the prosthesis fitting and regardless of the groups, there were significant improvements on the Amputee Mobility Predictor, two-minute walk test, and Timed Up and Go, and the differences between both groups were influenced by their baseline conditions, the study’s authors wrote. After prosthesis fitting, significant improvements were identified, regardless of the etiology.
The study, “Effects of an Inpatient Physical Rehabilitation Program Designed for Persons with Amputations of Traumatic or Vascular Etiologies,” was published in the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics.
